Meaning & Origins

Originally a name given to a child of either sex baptized in holy water that was, purportedly at least, brought from the River Jordan, whose Hebrew name, ha-yarden, means ‘flowing down’. It was in this river that Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, and medieval pilgrims to the Holy Land usually tried to bring back a flask of its water with them. The modern given name is either a revival of this, or else a transferred use of the surname that was derived from the medieval given name. It is more popular as a boy's name in Britain and as a girl's name in the United States.

French: habitational name from any of numerous places in northern France named Monceau (plural Monceaux), from Old French moncel ‘little mountain’, Late Latin monticellum, a diminutive of mons ‘mountain’, genitive montis.